Agricultural productivity is the major challenge as the world population is increasing at an alarming rate. Crop yields worldwide are not increasing quickly enough to support estimated global needs in 2050 (Ray D K, Mueller N D, West P C, Foley J A. 2013. PLoS ONE 8(6)). Also, agricultural land is shrinking due to industrialization and/or habitat use. Meeting current and future food demands necessitates production of superior crop varieties with increased yield.
Yield is an important but very complex trait and its expression is determined by multiple genes. Yield is also influenced by environmental conditions, which additionally masks expression of certain yield related genes (Srdic, J., Z. Pajic, S. Mladenovic Drinic. 2007. Maydica 52, 261-264). In maize, yield is associated with a number of factors including but not limited to: fresh ear weight, shelling percentage, ear diameter, cob length, ear weight, ear length, kernels per row, and 100 seed weight.
Selection through the use of molecular markers associated with traits related to increased yield such as increased ear weight allows selections based solely on the genetic composition of the progeny. As a result, plant breeding can occur more rapidly, thereby generating maize plants with a higher yield. Thus, it is desirable to provide compositions and methods for identifying and selecting maize plants with increased ear weight and yield and its potential usefulness in maize breeding programs for production of high-yielding maize hybrids.